News Archive

The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut — helping digest foods,
making some vitamins, making amino acids — may help determine if a
person is fat or thin. Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon and Vanessa K. Ridaura
are two members of a scientific team whose research shows a connection
between human gut bacteria and obesity. The evidence is from a novel experiment involving mice and humans that
is part of a growing fascination with gut bacteria and their role in
health and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease.
In this case, the focus was on obesity. Researchers found pairs of human
twins in which one was obese and the other lean. They transferred gut
bacteria from these twins into mice and watched what happened. The mice
with bacteria from fat twins grew fat; those that got bacteria from lean
twins stayed lean.

According to new research on epilepsy, zebrafish have certainly earned
their stripes. Results of a study in Nature Communications suggest that
zebrafish carrying a specific mutation may help researchers discover
treatments for Dravet syndrome (DS), a severe form of pediatric
epilepsy that results in drug-resistant seizures and developmental
delays.

University of Iowa researchers say that the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is
an ideal model to study hearing loss in humans caused by loud noise.
The reason: The molecular underpinnings to its hearing are roughly the
same as with people.

This
summer, Duke welcomed two new members to its community—each weighing no
more than a handful of paperclips and standing less than three and a
half centimeters tall.

Filbert
and his sister Scuppernong, twin grey mouse lemurs, were born on June
18 at the Duke Lemur Center. DLC Director Anne Yoder said the birth of
these twins is particularly significant in terms of the Center’s
research, because mouse lemurs have been documented to show symptoms of
dementia very similar to the onset of Alzheimer's in humans. By studying
mouse lemur genomes, the Center hopes to shed light on the nature of
Alzheimer's.

Hydractinia echinata
has the power to regenerate any lost body part, can clone itself, does
not age biologically, and, according to Dr Uri Frank, who is leading the
research at NUI Galway’s regenerative medicine institute, “in theory -
lives forever”.

The tiny creature, which is a
relative of jellyfish and sea anemones, is “perfect for understanding
the role of stem cells in development, ageing and disease,” says Dr Frank.

A lifetime of too much copper in our diets may be contributing to Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say. However, research is divided, with other studies suggesting copper may actually protect the brain. The latest study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed high levels of copper left the brain struggling to get rid of a protein thought to cause the dementia. The study on mice, by a team at the University of Rochester in New York,
suggested that copper interfered with the brain's shielding - the blood
brain barrier.

New research with worms at Rutgers may help shed light on how and why nervous
system changes occur, and what causes some people to suffer from
life-threatening anxiety disorders while others are better able to cope.

Scientists' latest bright idea? Bunnies that glow in the dark. A
Turkish lab used a technique developed at the University of Hawaii to
breed a colony of rabbits that glow bright green in the dark, in what
they say is an attempt to advance research into treatments for
life-threatening genetic diseases.

A cure for human deafness just might be swimming alongside the thousands
of zebrafish in muggy rooms across the hall from Texas A&M
University biologist Bruce Riley's office, and a recent renewal of a federal grant totaling $1.5 million over five years will move him closer to that goal.

John L. VandeBerg is the director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center and the chief scientific officer of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. In his latest op-ed, he discusses the need for apes and chimps in research: Here is a fact about animal welfare that my opponents fail to
consider: research with captive chimpanzees is vital to the development
and testing of vaccines that can help save the lives not just of humans
but also of wild chimpanzees and gorillas. It could even help those
species from becoming extinct.

It appears tiny and inconsequential enough, but the "super mouse" —
created by researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer
Center some six years ago — has spawned plenty of new research into
preventing and/or treating many types of cancer.

Scientists
are struggling to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. The search has
yielded a number of therapies, including deep brain stimulation, but
many possible treatments can only work for so long. What makes a cure
even more elusive is the scarcity of animal models for testing
treatments. But even with these hurdles, a group of researchers found
that certain symptoms of Parkinson's start to appear when mice suddenly
lose their testosterone.

Every year more than 13,000 Americans will be diagnosed with a
glioblastoma, the worst kind of brain tumor. There’s no cure and few
treatments. On average, people only have 15 months to live after
diagnosis. Now, man’s best friend could hold the key to helping these
patients.

Ongoing research on paralyzed dogs may one day help military veterans and others who have severe spinal cord injuries. Researchers
at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical
Sciences have developed a therapy that might help paralyzed dogs regain
some of their lost function.